Tag Archives: Fisherman’s Finest
Bering Sea cod conflict brewing between on and offshore buyers
“Cod Alley” is getting crowded, and some fishermen want to limit the boats in the narrow congested fishing area in the Bering Sea. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is looking at changes, including restricting flatfish factory trawlers from buying cod offshore. The Pacific Seafood Processors Association is pushing for restrictions on factory trawlers to protect its members’ shore plants in Unalaska, Akutan, King Cove and Sand Point. According to the PSPA’s Nicole Kimball, seven factory trawlers bought cod from 17 catcher boats in 2017,,, click here to read the story 21:23
Mayors go to D.C. to lobby for Anacortes shipbuilder
The mayors of Anacortes and Mount Vernon traveled to Washington, D.C., last week to urge legislators to forgive a local shipbuilder’s mistake. In speaking to the state’s Congressional delegation, Anacortes Mayor Laurie Gere lobbied for a waiver that would allow a ship built in the city to be used in U.S. waters, thus protecting the jobs of those who work for the shipbuilder. America’s Finest, the vessel in question, was built by Dakota Creek Industries in Anacortes for the Kirkland-based company Fisherman’s Finest for use in the Bering Sea. click here to read the story 13:50
Pacific Seafood Processor’s Association seeks probe into America’s Finest foreign steel
The trade group representing Alaska’s onshore fish processing plants is challenging a request for an exemption to a federal law limiting the amount of foreign steel allowed in fishing vessel construction. The Pacific Seafood Processor’s Association has major issues with the request for a Jones Act waiver sought by Fisherman’s Finest, the owner of the embattled flatfish factory trawler American’s Finest, and its builder, the Washington shipyard Dakota Creek Industries. The 261-foot vessel is nearly complete at a cost of at least $60 million, and cannot fish in U.S. waters without the waivers. PSPA’s members include Unisea and Westward in Unalaska, and most of the other fish processors in Alaska. click here to read the story 09:52
New Dakota Creek fishing ship will be first in U.S. since 1989
Commissioning a new ship costs a bundle. Ask Helena Park, CEO and founder of Fisherman’s Finest in Kirkland. She has hired Dakota Creek Industries in Anacortes to build a ship unlike one built in the United States in more than 30 years. Ms. Park, as everyone calls her, came to the U.S. from South Korea as a high school exchange student in 1973. She began working in commercial fishing in 1982. Three and a half decades later, at age 60, she’s looking at an $80 million bill for the building of America’s Finest, which will replace both ships in her fleet. Read the story here 16:48
